Pasta Recipes

My starting point with pasta, portionwise, is 100g dried weight of pasta per person for a main, on average; there are variables, of course, appetite and age chief among them. Other factors that come into play, when it comes to weight out pasta, are what – if anything – else is being eaten and which kind of sauce partners it.

But before we go any further, I must tell you about the Italian technique of holding back some pasta-cooking water to help bind a sauce to the pasta. Please, promise me that you will get into the habit of doing this every time you cook pasta. Indeed, you should make yourself incapable of draining pasta without first lowering a small cup into the cooking water to remove and reserve some for the sauce.

If it makes your life easier (not too much bubbling away on the stove), when you’re feeding a lot of people, you can follow a pasta-cooking tip from Anna Del Conte: the Vincenzo Agnesi method, which reduces the risk of overcooking and is as follows. Bring your water to the boil, add salt, then tip in the pasta, stirring well to make sure it’s all in and not clumped together. Once the water comes back to the boil, let the pasta cook for 2 minutes, then turn off the heat, cover the pan with a clean, thin tea towel (not a waffle-textured one) and clamp on a tight-fitting lid. Let the pasta stand like this for as long as the packet tells you to cook it normally. When the time is up, drain the pasta, remembering to remove a small cupful of cooking water before doing so.

My only remaining word of wisdom on the subject is also from Anna Del Conte and it is that the water you cook pasta in should be as salty as the Mediterranean. Contemporary dietary mores could not run more counter to such a recommendation; you, of course, are free to act on my advice or ignore it as you see fit.

Linguine With Mussels

You might label this shiny black musselled variation of linguine alle vongole, linguine alle cozze, but to be frank, this version is not very Italian-flavoured. It owes something to the French taste f…

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Minestrone in Minutes

This is child's play to make, and I use the term advisedly, since it is the invention of my then ten-year-old son Bruno (Brunostrone, we call it) and we make versions of it constantly. Use any beans o…

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Pappardelle With Lamb Ragu

‘Ragout’ is French, ‘ragù’ Italian, and this meat sauce is certainly inspired by the Sicilian combination of sweet lamb, dried wild mint and crushed chilli flakes, though I’ve added an Anglo note with…

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Pasta With Onions and Anchovies

I know that people feel very strongly about anchovies, pro or anti. I'm fiercely pro, and if you are, too, you will love this. For those who are hesistantly rather than resoundingly anti, I say to you…

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Pasta With Ham, Peas and Cream

When my children were younger, this was always one of their favourite teas and is now one of their favourite suppers. It serves 2 or 3 children — double quantities for teenagers and above.

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Sicilian Pasta With Tomatoes, Garlic & Almonds — Photo by Petrina Tinslay

Sicilian Pasta With Tomatoes, Garlic and Almonds

I like to use fusilli lunghi, which are like long golden ringlets (or, less poetically, telephone cords) but, if you can't find them, simply substitute regulation-size fusilli (or indeed any pasta of…

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Linguine With Chilli, Crab and Watercress

You know, I'd eaten this a couple of times and made it myself (throwing in handfuls of peppery watercress as I did so) a few more before I realised it was, give or take, the River Cafe's recipe — by w…

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Pasta E Fagioli

This is that life-saving, thick, pasta-and-bean meal of a soup — pasta fazool — as sung about by Dean Martin in That's Amore. It's just the thing you want to eat when the rain's battering against the…

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Quick Calabrian Lasagne

I do realize that a dish that needs an hour in the oven, might not, at first glance, seem to qualify for the epithet "quick", but I'm not trying to pull a fast one. All things are relative, and what m…

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Fresh Tagliatelle

No one’s saying you have to make fresh pasta, but once you try, you’ll soon see that it’s not so difficult. I had a pasta machine for years before I was brave enough to use it; for some reason I thoug…

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Witches' Hair

I'm sure that children's rights activists will think it cruel and wrong to lie to children, but there is no way I would ever tell mine that black spaghetti is dyed with squid ink. In fact when my son…

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Pasta Alla Genovese — Photo by Lis Parsons

Ligurian Pasta with Basil, Beans and Potatoes

My children, when little, wouldn't have cared if all I ever gave them was pasta with some bottled sauce poured over, and I don't deny that's sometimes indeed what they were given; but to please myself…

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Meatballs

The trick to these meatballs is to keep them small. Don’t actually use a teaspoon, but use about a teaspoon’s amount of mince to roll each ball. If there are children around, so much the better; they…

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Penne Alla Vodka

As with all dishes that find their way into a country's repertoire, even oddball ones like this, there are many versions of this recipe: some add chilli flakes, some cubes of bacon: I prefer it with n…

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Slattern's Spaghetti

My version of pasta alla puttanesca has had a slight name change. And yes, I realise that it’s not really necessary to translate the title, as this store cupboard standby of pasta with anchovies, oliv…

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Tortilla Lasagne

Many of you might have noticed this recipe has had a name-change: somewhat lazily, and definitely erroneously, I’ve always called it “Mexican Lasagne”; I’m far happier with its new name, Tortilla Lasa…

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Hearty Wholewheat Pasta With Brussels Sprouts, Cheese and Potato

It is not quite normal to feel as joyous as I do when saying the words “Brussels sprouts”, but this recipe does not merely use said much-denigrated ingredient, it also celebrates it. Sprouts are nutty…

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Linguine With Lemon, Garlic and Thyme Mushrooms — Photo by Lis Parsons

Linguine With Mushrooms, Lemon, Garlic and Thyme

This is one of my proudest creations and, I suppose, a good example of a recipe that isn't originally from Italy, but sits uncontroversially in her culinary canon. I don't think it would be too presum…

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So easy and so delicious! I can't wait to cook it again.

Pasta Salad Primavera — Photo by James Merrell

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